Supplementation of vitamin B2 (ribofavin) in poultry feeding is essential. For economic and environmental reasons, ribofavin is now produced biotechnologically, which, in most industrial production, is based on genetically modifed organisms (GMOs). Due to legislation, organic animals must be fed with GMO-free feeds, which also applies to the production processes of vitamin additives in the feed.
For reasons of aspired naturalness and cost reduction, vitamin additions should be kept low in organic livestock systems. To define safe lower threshold levels of riboflavin supplementation in organic poultry feeding, 135 hybrid layers were allocated to three dietary treatments supplemented with either 4.5 (R4.5), 3.0 (R3.0) or 1.5 mg (R1.5) GMO-free riboflavin added per kg feed. This resulted in total measured concentration averages of 5.0, 4.5, and 3.1 mg kg−1 feed for R4.5, R3.0 and R1.5, respectively.
Il progetto RELACS ha messo a punto delle raccomandazioni per l’integrazione di vitamina B2 nei polli da carne biologici a crescita lenta e per le galline ovaiole nei sistemi avicoli biologici.
Alternatives to riboflavin (vitamin B2) production by recombinant microorganisms are needed in organic poultry production, but are cost-intensive, so that a demand-oriented riboflavin supply is necessary. Details on the riboflavin requirements of organic poultry are not available. A feed material with high native riboflavin content from fermentation of the filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii was studied. Two runs with 800 Ranger Gold™ broilers each (40 pens with 20 animals) were conducted.